Are we looking upon our spiritual adversaries and obstacles as things that have come, not to crush us, but to be cast down for the honor and glory of our Captain's cause? Thus shall we be "more than conquerors through him that loved us."

Bro. F.—Well... I should like to have a talk with you. They tell me that you sanctified folks claim to be free from sin, and I can't believe that, for the apostle Paul confessed that he had sin dwelling in him, and I don't think we can get better than he was.

His great salvation is inseparably linked with a rejoicing spirit. True, it can stoop to sorrow; it will enter the saddest home and the darkest midnight, but it cannot dwell with gloom. It must banish sorrow as well as sin, and live in the light of joy.

Some people today... have been pardoned, but have not got over into the Acts of the Apostles.... But a real Bible Christian has been through repentance at Sinai, has been reconciled at the cross of Christ, and has been baptized with the Holy Ghost at Pentecost.

That is the way to look at the Scriptures and understand the thoughts of God—to see in them the face of Love, shining through and through. Not ideas, nor doctrines, but Jesus Himself as the Life and Source and sustaining Presence of all our life.

How many of us really have Christ's peace today?... Is grace not able to help us to attain that peace?... We may say with perfect confidence that.... It is a state into which every believer in Christ may enter... and in which he may dwell in all life's changes.

Perhaps there are some who... are not yet truly satisfied with what they have. If you throw open your heart and give up everything but just believing and allowing Him to do what He wants.... Jesus will reveal Himself.

Just as the oak tree converts all chemistry into oak by the peculiar quality of its oak life, so the pure in heart, he that lives the Christ life, will from the dark chemistry of this world—its disappointments and suffering—turn all things into glory and praise.

Her quest was not yet over. For we now see four great barriers her faith had yet to surmount; namely, divine silence, human coldness, class, and humiliation. If we look at these in detail, we find that they illustrate the vital issues in many lives today.

Too many people think their weakness is a barrier to their usefulness, or make it an excuse for doing little with their life. Instead of this, however, if we give it to Christ, He will transform it into strength.

To walk in love—to speak, to act, to purpose, with the love of God pervading our every movement—is the best and sublimest form of existence. To do this there must be a thorough abandonment of self-will, self-opinion, and self-desire.

Salvation is greater riches than all the gold, silver, and valuable treasures of this earth summed up together. A treasure that never faileth; a wealth so great that, to the happy possessor, everything of earth is, in comparison, reduced to dust and dirt.

We cannot put too great emphasis upon the duty of giving happiness and cheer to others. But it is no less a duty that we should be happy and cheerful ourselves. All our efforts to lighten another's load will be limited unless they spring from a source of joy within.

" 'All things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.' " She looked up at the pastor earnestly, and inquired: "Is that so? Does God say that?" ... She immediately began praying: "Lord, send my father here; Lord, send my father to the chapel."

Because faith is essential to the spiritual life—both to entering that life, and for any steps of progress in that life—it behooves us to give it all the nourishment possible. Faith can be fed and strengthened, and thus will grow.

The depth into which we launch will depend upon how perfectly we have given up the shore, and the greatness of our need, and the vision of our possibilities. The fish were to be found in the deep.... So with us; our needs are to be met in the deep things of God.

There is no better way in the world to test every trait in a soul than by little things.... It is our unplanned, instinctive actions and words that reveal what we really are, not those large, conspicuous things for which we especially arm ourselves.

All words are loaded with the quality of the soul out of which they proceed. It is eternally impossible for God to utter one word that is not loaded with divinity; and... it is impossible for the devil to utter one word which does not, in some way, contain a lie.

It seemed a waste of precious life when Jesus died so young, and in such shame.... He lost His life, but that seed became the world's hope and joy. We understand it now. Christianity is the outcome of that "waste." Heaven is the fruit of the Redeemer's sacrifice.

As a rule, lukewarmness of spirit is so decent and well-behaved, that it chloroforms its victim and kills him without a scream of terror. This is what makes it so awfully fatal. While open sin slays its hundreds, nice, respectable lukewarmness slays its tens of thousands.

There are times when closet prayer is not the duty of the hour.... We may think we are honoring God by waiting... but really we are dishonoring Him by lack of present faith and ready obedience. Blessing... cannot be given to us until we go forth to get it.

Very few Christians reach such an intimacy with our dear Lord as to receive and appreciate His individual feelings. Jesus is an infinite lover, and nothing will satisfy Him but a pure, sacred, passionate, and personal love.

"Uncle Edward... will you ask God to make Tommy come back home? His mother does want him so badly." "I will leave you to do that," was the curt reply. "Well, if you don't want to pray for Tommy, pray for God's probable sons, won't you?

What is our daily cross? It is those things in our lives that produce suffering of body, mind, or heart. It is those things which in our poor judgment seem to hinder the easy flow of our religious life.... Were there no suffering at all, then there would be no cross at all.

It may be that this is just where some of us are standing today. We have been trusting God in part and have been trying to do the other part ourselves, and God is speaking to us... "I am the Almighty God; walk before me and be thou perfect."

I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm, one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a side street....

"I, the Vine, have taken you to be My branches.... I have surrendered Myself as God absolutely to you; I became Man and died for you that I might be entirely yours. Come and surrender yourselves entirely to be Mine."

He was lost here according to this Scripture. And He was lost by those who loved Him. And lost in Jerusalem and in the Temple!.... And yet why be astonished when the same thing is happening today. Christ is still lost by His friends, and in Jerusalem, and in the Temple.

There are many manifestations of the self life which are not clearly sinful, but neither are they truly Christlike. ...this middle zone of self activity... must be... crucified in order to reach deep abiding union with God, where there is none of self and all of Christ Jesus.

We acquire physical knowledge through our senses.... We obtain intellectual knowledge by the exercise of reason.... We gain spiritual knowledge through the operation of revealed truth and the agency of the inner spiritual being.

To rush forward in our thinking, speaking, and doing, demonstrates a lack of faith in God, and how little we perceive His presence and dominion over all things. It is true in a thousand different things that "he that believeth shall not make haste."

I saw that they were close upon a terrible place, for mighty cliffs stood above the shore, and they were within a very short distance of a sheer and terrible precipice. "What are you dragging?" I cried to them. And a thousand voices seemed to answer, "A soul! a soul!"

Of all the things that He might have said, perhaps no more beautiful, blessed, needful, and significant speech could have been made by Him to His sorrowing disciples—and, beyond them, to the struggling, battling Church in all ages, and even to the sinful world itself.